Members of the "third house" shape public policy
Published August 30, 2015
by Mark Binker, WRAL, August 30, 2015.
When the loud thunk of the speaker's gavel hammered a legislative day to a close on a recent afternoon, most members of the state House began moseying off to late-day meetings or, if they were lucky, home for the night. As rank and file lawmakers filtered out, more than a dozen lobbyists made beelines for the desks of a few key committee chairmen.
Asked whether outside interests were trying to influence his work on a Medicaid reform bill that will change how billions of state and federal dollars are spent, Rep. , R-Forsyth, nodded toward a clutch of lobbyists gathered a few feet away.
"Obviously," Lambeth delivered dryly.
It's no secret, said the budget chairman who is a leading the House's effort on the bill, that doctors, hospitals and other health care providers – and the people paid to represent them – were helping to shape a measure that will ultimately determine how the state provides health care to 1 out of every 5 North Carolina residents.
"They're the ones who are going to have to make this work," Lambeth said. "If we can't coordinate and make this work to the benefit of these patients, then you're going to be here three or four years from down interviewing me about all the problems with the program."
The image of a lobbyist in popular imagination, informed by outlandish cultural references like "House of Cards" and scandals including the pay-for-play Jack Abramoff affair in Washington and the Raleigh firestorm that sent former House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, to jail, belies the work-a-day world in which most of lobbyists live.
While the exact number of lobbyists registered to ply the halls of the legislative building and executive branch agencies varies week-to-week, the number has hovered between 750 and 800 in recent years, according to data from the N.C. Secretary of State's office.
In 2014, publicly traded companies, small businesses, local governments, nonprofits and others interests reported spending $38.9 million on lobbying state government, $35.9 million of that on salaries. By comparison, the General Assembly's total annual operating budget is roughly $53 million per year.
One of those waiting on Lambeth last week was Alex Miller, who represents the N.C. Nurses Association and the state chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. The lawmaker, he said, had asked for information about his clients and Miller said he wanted to make sure an email with a response had gone through. His clients, Miller said, aren't the biggest players in the Medicaid reform debate, but could see their livelihoods drastically affected depending on what the state does.
"To their great credit Rep. Lambeth, Sen. (Ralph) Hise and other leaders have continually sought input from organizations representing the providers who care for Medicaid patients as they develop the reform plan," Miller said.
Although their roles aren't described in many civics textbooks, and many would rather stay out of the news altogether, very little public policy makes it through the North Carolina legislature without a nudge, nip or tuck from a lobbyist.
That's not unique to North Carolina.
Two decades ago, the late author and public policy professor Alan Rosenthal described the lobbying regulars who plied their trade around the nation's state House and Senate chambers as the "third house" of any particular lawmaking body. Rosenthal's observation that "legislators, like the rest of us, are more apt to do things for individuals they like and trust," is at once an observation about human nature, a truism of the profession, and at the root of public suspicions about the profession.
"People are always going to be looking at who is getting the ear of legislators, who is getting access. That should always be examined, and there will always be some criticism," said Paige Worsham, senior policy council for the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a think tank that annual ranks lobbyists by influence. "But legislators are always going to seek out information. I don't think it would be possible not to have lobbyists. That information gap is going to be filled somehow."
